ABC News wrote:Ad company Adshel has reinstated a safe sex campaign for gay couples after it became clear a barrage of complaints about the ads were orchestrated by the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL).

The bus shelter poster campaign spruiking the message "rip and roll", features a gay couple hugging while holding a condom packet.

The offending ads were taken down from around Brisbane yesterday after Adshel, Brisbane City Council and the Advertising Standards Bureau received 30 complaints about the ads.

But the ads' removal also caused an uproar on social media sites, with many furious the posters were brought down.

In a statement issued this afternoon, Adshel said many of the complaints were part of an ACL campaign, and that it has reinstated the ads.

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Earlier today the ACL said the issue with the ads was about condoms, not homosexuality.

"I've been labelled homophobic. This has absolutely nothing to do with gay couples," spokeswoman Wendy Francis said.

"This has nothing to do with anything other than another condom ad in a bus shelter, where the children are catching buses to school and billboards where their parents are stopping at lights.

"I will continue to fight sexual imagery in our outdoor advertising until we can get it removed."

Even her lies are odious.

Quite. And they're even more transparent when you read the actual complaints that Adshel received. If the concern was just about 'sexual imagery' ( ) then Wendy should have instructed her minions to complain about 'sexual imagery' and not complain about those dirty queers.

Additionally, if they want G-rated imagery in all public advertising then why are they focussing on this one advert? There are many more explicit ads around. And what about alcohol adverts? They always turn up in bus shelters. But, of course, alcohol adverts would never influence impressionable youth.

While some complaints focus on the issue of sexual imagery in public places, many complaints deviate from the script...

REASON FOR CONCERN : My children pass this daily. Refers to homosexuality as "ok" I disagree on a moral basis that saturation and desensitisation of the public is occurring to make a minority group "normal" for political correctness!! Surely there are other ways to educate about safe sex. It should represent everyone- not just homosexuals. ASB ID: 6321

REASON FOR CONCERN: This ad is not suitable for general advertisement. Those practicing homosexuality are a minority - such an ad does not need to be viewed by the general public, particularly children. The reason homosexuals need to use condoms is because their sexual behaviour has very high risks of serious diseases - this is not something we want to be impressing on our children as 'safe' sex. If safe sex was the intention of the ad, then a heterosexual couple would have been more appropriate (but still unappropriated for outdoor advertising). This ad is offensive and is completely contrary to prevailing community standards.ASB ID: 6321

REASON FOR CONCERN: The advertisements, which I have seen on a billboard, & numerous bus shelters, is blatantly & very publicly, promoting to our impressionable youth & children, an unhealthy lifestyle choice. It shows two young males in the act of foreplay & to me is encouraging homosexuality. This public display is unacceptable, & damaging for young people to be exposed to. Could it please be removed immediately. ASB ID: 6321

REASON FOR CONCERN: The ad shows two men with one man kissing the neck of the other man with his arm around and references a health I object to a general public sign depicting two gay men in a foreplay pose which is visible to the public (children walking to school). Ads like this could influence and confuse young people who are thinking about their sexuality etc. The same-sex community is a minority group. There is no need for a public ad like this. I am concerned this is an attempt to normalise a same sex sexual relationship. It is not natural and our children should be protected from this type of advertisement community’s initiative. Clearly it is two gay men. ASB ID: 6321

REASON FOR CONCERN : Firstly, one of the men is wearing a wedding band. This suggests that either (A) they are a married gay couple (which is illegal in Australia), or (B) that at least one of them is married and is cheating on his wife. Secondly, since when has advertising condoms been appropriate in a public space- especially at a bus stop right next to a popular city park where children frequent. ASB ID: 6321

There is grandeur in this view of lifeWhere one becomes many through struggle and strife,But the Mother of Mysteries is another man's call:Why is there something 'stead of nothing at all?The Darwin Song Project

It is good that finally normal people did stand up and shout down these religious lunatics. We need to see more of that.

REASON FOR CONCERN : Firstly, one of the men is wearing a wedding band. This suggests that either (A) they are a married gay couple (which is illegal in Australia), or (B) that at least one of them is married and is cheating on his wife. Secondly, since when has advertising condoms been appropriate in a public space- especially at a bus stop right next to a popular city park where children frequent. ASB ID: 6321

No, same sex marriage is not recognised as a legally valid marriage, it is not illegal. There is no law against having a wedding ring with a same sex partner

mrjonno wrote:Havent quite got the political activity of christians in Australia compared to the UK,US, Canada etc.

It looks obviously far weaker than in the US but it still seems a lot more powerful a lobby than in the UK. Do politicans ever get asked about their religious views in Australia?. It generally would be considered to even ask here

It's kind of an irrelevant point for most people (i think). Politicians do get asked, but generally only when the issue being discussed is a religious one. Julia Gillard isn't religious but gets a lot of the Christian vote because she panders to them all the time. So party polices probably have more of an impact than an individual candidates religious views.

Religious organisations don't have a huge impact on the government (as a whole), but they have an extremely over inflated say in some issues and are the main opposition to many pieces of legislation that keep getting shut down such as:

- Stem Cell Research (in WA anyway)- Euthanasia- Gay Marriage- And any opposition to the government funding school chaplaincy programs or religious instruction classes is generally shot down because religious organisations are in bed with the government.

They are consulted for lots of social issues for no good reason really. But we don't have it nearly as bad as the US, where these groups are trying to get creationism taught in science classes.

Strangely enough, the biggest proponent of creationism in the US, Ken Ham, is from Australia. Next time throw your trash away instead of sending it over here haha.

Nothing is so fatal to the progress of the human mind as to suppose that our views of science are ultimate; that there are no mysteries in nature; that our triumphs are complete, and that there are no new worlds to conquer. -Humphry Davy

Is it not time for those responsible for the billboards to get all their supporters to write to the press, their PR to get on the electronic media thanking these retards for helping increase the effectiveness of the campaign?

Men . . . have had the vanity to pretend that the wholecreation was made for them, whilst in reality the wholecreation does not suspect their existence.—CAMILLE FLAMMARION

The Queensland Association for Healthy Communities launched its "Rip and Roll" advertisements a week ago and yesterday learned they were being scrapped after about 30 complaints.

The adverts feature a black and white image of a gay couple embracing, holding an unopened red condom packet.Advertisement: Story continues below

It includes the website address and hotline for Healthy Communities, which has been receiving state government funding for sexual health promotion since 1988.

Adshel, the company that provides advertising for Brisbane's bus shelters; Goa Billboards; and the Advertising Standards Bureau were targeted in an orchestrated campaign by the Australian Christian Lobby.

Although, to be honest, I think most Christians in Australia wouldn't give a shit about this ad. The Australian Christian Lobby, however, is like the USA's Catholic League. They're a bunch of theocratic, bigoted windbags who still live in the 1950s.

The ACL Vision

The vision of the Australian Christian Lobby is to see Christian principles and ethics accepted and influencing the way we are governed, do business and relate to each other as a community.

The ACL aims to foster a more compassionate, just and moral society by seeking to have the positive public contributions of the Christian faith reflected in the political life of the nation.

The ACL, established in 1995, operates in the Federal Parliament, and in all the State and Territory Parliaments, and is neither party partisan nor denominationally-aligned.

The ACL does not seek to be the peak political voice for the church, but to be a professional witness to Christ in the Australian Parliaments which allows for the voice of the church and individual Christians to be more respectfully received in the public square.

Actually, I think the objectionable part was primarily the location - a bus stop used by school CHILDREN.

But it could also be argued that the way to get the safe sex message across to ADULT gay people (who apparently dont already know about AIDS) would be in mature age GAY SPECIFIC media. Leave the bus stop ad space for hairspray and chewing gum ads.

Ad agencies dont care about religious or gay rights agendas. They care about ad revenue and consumption of the product. And in a retail democracy, its a plain matter of fact that if your Agency upsets the wrong demographic you are going to get some unpleasant leverage applied by the big end of market - which includes big media buyers/clients/stakeholders like political parties, "clean, wholesome family" (American) brand names, radio shock jocks and yes, the religious powers that be.

If the bus stop happens to be on the same route taken by children going to a Christian Independent School - the fastest growing sector in education in this country - its no surprise that the ACL makes itself heard.

Sure, people (very undemocratically) say..."oh we have to get religion out of the public square."

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Lion IRC wrote:Actually, I think the objectionable part was primarily the location - a bus stop used by school CHILDREN.

I dunno, some people think it's more important to prevent people catching an avoidable, debilitating and perhaps fatal disease than to prevent the children of dogmatic christians being made aware that gay people exist. Crazy, I know.

Sure, people (very undemocratically) say..."oh we have to get religion out of the public square."

Why? So atheists can run everything all by themselves?

Can you really not grasp the simple idea that secularism means leaving religion out of public life, not leaving religious people out of public life?

There is grandeur in this view of lifeWhere one becomes many through struggle and strife,But the Mother of Mysteries is another man's call:Why is there something 'stead of nothing at all?The Darwin Song Project

Lion no need to defend th ACL. I've seen tampon ads at bus stops, is that too inappropriate for children? If so, where are the ACL? Oh right, they don't give a shit because the last thing they actually care about is the mental state of children. They just use that as an excuse to hide behind while pushing their theocratic-agenda.

Rome Existed wrote:In QLD it's illegal to open a lot of businesses on Christian holidays. Went out a few years ago on a Thursday and was told that the club would be shutting before midnight because it couldn't legally remain open past midnight because that was Good Friday. Like, wtf? If you're a Christian and you don't want to go out drinking on Good Friday stay the fuck home, but don't force the rest of us to stay home!

Good Friday being a national holiday has nothing to do with modern Christians and their practices or wishes, it is the product of a Christianity-influenced culture and history. Even in the U.S. where we have separation of church and state, Good Friday is a holiday in certain states (not nationwide). Some states have chosen to rename it to "Spring Holiday", to avoid the religious association but keep the day off. In Canada, a very secular country, Good Friday is also still a nationwide holiday, and my Canadian friends have told me it doesn't bother them; it's another day off (and a long weekend—they get Easter Monday off)!

Rome Existed wrote:In QLD it's illegal to open a lot of businesses on Christian holidays. Went out a few years ago on a Thursday and was told that the club would be shutting before midnight because it couldn't legally remain open past midnight because that was Good Friday. Like, wtf? If you're a Christian and you don't want to go out drinking on Good Friday stay the fuck home, but don't force the rest of us to stay home!

Good Friday being a national holiday has nothing to do with modern Christians and their practices or wishes, it is the product of a Christianity-influenced culture and history. Even in the U.S. where we have separation of church and state, Good Friday is a holiday in certain states (not nationwide). Some states have chosen to rename it to "Spring Holiday", to avoid the religious association but keep the day off. In Canada, a very secular country, Good Friday is also still a nationwide holiday, and my Canadian friends have told me it doesn't bother them; it's another day off (and a long weekend—they get Easter Monday off)!

Yeah, but why can they remain open on the non religious holidays and are just forced to pay their staff at higher rates than normal?